I have a whole mess of those Freeman oil trays that I use in the summer. I place them under my screened bottoms. But I never have used the powdered sugar on the bees to drive the beetles down. I use lots of smoke. The sugar would cake up the oil IMO. They also catch the worms before they make it to the soil also.

I built screen bottom boards and made a tray out of galvanized metal. I definitely kill thousands of SHB with them. That is the first time I have seen this video and will have to try it.Did you notice that the second he brushed his bees they immediately stung him. I haven't used a brush since I first time I used one to remove honey and they got real aggressive and stayed that way for the next 3 weeks.Jim

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I'll have to get my hubby to work some magic as all my base boxes are fixed - I showed him the BEETLETRAPwhere you cut out a lines and add an oilpan below on a runner ... it will be fiddly and time consuming but once it's fitted you don't have to open the hive to get at it... since I just looked at what they can do to my hives I'd rather have some preventary measures in place!!!

I've had them for nearly 2yrs and have only had the odd beetle... the hive I extracted from today is 2yrs old, super strong and has only had the odd beetle - it's doing well ( hope it stays that way ) checked the brood box and looking great ;) BTW 22 litres of liquid gold... I'm thrilled :-D

check out the small hive beetle trap post further down the page...dont bother with powdered dusting, that really only works with varoaa mite, which we are lucky enough to not have here currently. other than that it makes a hell of a mess.

I built screen bottom boards and made a tray out of galvanized metal. I definitely kill thousands of SHB with them. That is the first time I have seen this video and will have to try it.Did you notice that the second he brushed his bees they immediately stung him. I haven't used a brush since I first time I used one to remove honey and they got real aggressive and stayed that way for the next 3 weeks.Jim

Jim, which size mesh are you using? #8 looks to small, #6 lets bees through...#7 is apparently mythical and is packed in the saddlebags of a unicorn somewhere in Strawberry Shortcake Land....???

The bee brush... It looked like he swept the bees rather than "flicking" the bees. Rolling the bees is reported to give them a bad hair day. The guy *seemed* pretty comfortable with the bees to start with...guess he pushed the envelope too much. ???

Thanks,Ed

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Jim, which size mesh are you using? #8 looks to small, #6 lets bees through...#7 is apparently mythical and is packed in the saddlebags of a unicorn somewhere in Strawberry Shortcake Land....???

The bee brush... It looked like he swept the bees rather than "flicking" the bees. Rolling the bees is reported to give them a bad hair day. The guy *seemed* pretty comfortable with the bees to start with...guess he pushed the envelope too much. ???

Thanks,Ed

I use # 8 mesh. I went to several hardware stores, in 3 different counties, this weekend and could not find any. I will probably will go on the internet to get it. I would love to find that #7 is mythical mesh. Might exist as a metric mesh.Jim

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

Kelly's used to list the #7 mesh as being available...but in 100' rolls at $350.00 per roll. :roll: It's listed as out of stock, now. I've been thinking of trying to double up 1/4" mesh so that 1/8"x1/4" openings are formed. Probably couldn't get a consistent overlap, though.

Ed

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www.beeweather.comAmerican blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world. 320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror". Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA. But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."..."The press is our chief ideological weapon." - Nikita Khrushchev

I think #8 mesh works just fine. Elevate your SBB and cover a Brownie pan with mesh so the bees won't fall in, put a bit of water with a couple of drops of dish soap to break the surface tension, and slide it underneath. You will catch all kinds of things.

Instead of an inner cover, get a piece of cheap flooring vinyl (like you use in kitchens) and cut it so there is a 3/4inch gap all around when you sit it on top of the frames in the top super (we call it a hive mat). Make sure the vinyl is the type with the thin felt-like backing, with the felt side down on the frame tops.